Francesca Millican-Slater

writer & performer

My Dearest Girls

Commissioned and created in collaboration with Arts Alive and Shropshire Archives this duo of performances is based on the real letters sent between a group of six young women between 1917-1920. Having schooled together in Bridgnorth, Shropshire they keep in contact through round robin letters addressed to all, sent bundle by bundle, each women adding her reply to the last and sending them on. Through the war years and beyond, across county and town, through work and strife and changes of address these women write to each other.

Helen's Story

​

A 30 minute storytelling piece. Flexible and easily tourable it is suitable for festivals and events with an option of up to three performances a day.

Focussing on one of the girls letters, Helen of Brockton, Much Wenlock, this is a story of women working on the land, the impact of the war on family and farm and Helen’s wait for news from The Front.

​

Helen's Story has been performed nationally across story telling & folk festivals, museums, and community centres since 2014. It is available to tour until the end of 2018.

​

​

The Letters Book

​

A 90 minute piece including interval suitable for rural touring and arts centre's. Combining character, music and lyrical story telling, the Dearest Girls tales are told against a background of war and beyond.

​

There is gossip and hint of scandal, reprimands and reprisals, tales of dancing for royalty, skating in the moonlight, fiancés on the frontline and how to feed 100 chickens while on rations.

​

This piece was developed with director Terina Talbot, musician Phill Ward and designer Claire Browne.

​

'I was carried away into the lives of the young women, beautifully voiced and portrayed with sympathetic resonance. This is why arts should be funded!'